Do I have to pay rent?

ET1976

This poor 'woe is me' LL doesn't have to take any responsibility for the 'dodgy wiring on the circuit board' then...?

clutton_2

it has not been established that the circuit board was responsible as yet......

Alias_Omega

hopefully the landlord will have the relevant insurance to cover this..

kcwild

Hi, I've got a solicitor now which is fighting my case. Just to let you know where its going although there is no legal obligation for my landlord to wave the rent
, Both shelter and my solicitor see it has completely unacceptable that its already taken 3 weeks to start getting any quotes for damage. The argument is technically myself and my flat mate could have been back living in the property a week after the fire happened.

Also just to answer a few of your questions :-

My landlord DOES have the relevant insurance but is NOT claiming on it. As there isn't enough damage in their minds to warrant claiming.

My solicitor is also going to be in talks with my letting agent about the fuse box, it as been proven by the very electrician that my letting agent employed to check the fuse box and my own electrician that it was going to be a fire. Also pictures were taken of the visible faults.

kcwild

pinkshoes wrote: »

I read the fuse box bit as speculation i.e. it was somewhat a fire hazard and could have caused a fire at some point, but did NOT cause this fire. The dodgy wiring on the circuit board came to light due to the fire.

This fire was purely caused by the lamp which was bought by the tenant, which they timed to come on when they weren't in the house, having never even tested the lamp before.

Based on this, I'd say they probably are still responsible for rent, but am not 100% sure... Or if the LL can claim it on the insurance, the tenant should offer to pay the excess at the very least.

Forgive me for possibly sounding rude but I find this comment completely ridiculous. Firstly every electrical item is or should be tested before it is allowed to be sold. Your suggesting that every consumer of electrical items should purchase pac testing equipment because that is the only way you could possibly be sure that there isn't faults in any electrical product.

Secondly switching a lamp or any other electrical item on for a period of time would prove nothing. I could watch a lamp on for a day, a week or a year who is to say next time I turned the lamp on and didn't supervise it, it wouldn't burst into flames due to a hidden fault.

Thirdly even if I had the lamp pac tested which I don't believe a lot of people would do, I would have to have the item tested every single time the item was switched on to prove it was safe has a fault can happen any time.

Furthermore I don't believe that because the lamp was on unsupervised for 10 minutes is a big deal. Everyone leaves their fridge or freezer on 24 hours a day which I'm told by the firemen who put my fire out surprisingly starts a lot of fires, is this these peoples faults? Or even leaving a room to go to the bathroom etc everything would have to be turned off in case of fires or it would be their fault?

If your standard of testing an item is turning it on to see if it works without instantly bursting flames, the lamp was tested to see if the bulb worked for a few seconds.